Nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear security in Japan, 2; Significance of sustainable progress in plutonium-thermal policy and R&D of fast reactor

Mochiji, Toshiro; Senzaki, Masao*; Tamai, Hiroshi; Iwamoto, Tomonori*; Ishiguro, Yuzuru*; Kitade, Yuta; Sato, Heigo*; Suehiro, Rie*; Taniguchi, Tomihiro*; Fukasawa, Tetsuo*; et al.

Enerugi Rebyu, 40(7), p.58 - 59, 2020/06

Japan have promoted the peaceful use of plutonium with the nuclear non-proliferation commitment based on IAEA safeguards agreement and Japan-US nuclear cooperation agreement, as well as ensuring transparency of the policy that Japan has no plutonium without purpose of use. In promoting the nuclear fuel cycle, adherence to those measures and maintaining plutonium utilization by means of plutonium-thermal, and a fast reactor cycle to achieve large-scale and long-term energy supply and environmental improvement, therefore, further research and development is essential.

Factors controlling dissolved Cs concentrations in east Japanese rivers

Tsuji, Hideki*; Ishii, Yumiko*; Shin, M.*; Taniguchi, Keisuke*; Arai, Hirotsugu*; Kurihara, Momo*; Yasutaka, Tetsuo*; Kuramoto, Takayuki*; Nakanishi, Takahiro; Lee, S*; et al.

Science of the Total Environment, 697, p.134093_1 - 134093_11, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134093

To investigate the main factors that control the dissolved radiocesium concentration in river water in the area affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, the correlations between the dissolved Cs concentrations at 66 sites normalized to the average Cs inventories for the watersheds with the land use, soil components, topography, and water quality factors were assessed. We found that the topographic wetness index is significantly and positively correlated with the normalized dissolved Cs concentration. Similar positive correlations have been found for European rivers because wetland areas with boggy organic soils that weakly retain Cs are mainly found on plains. However, for small Japanese river watersheds, the building area ratio in the watershed strongly affected the dissolved Cs concentration.

Isotope-selective microscale imaging of radioactive Cs without isobaric interferences using sputtered neutral mass spectrometry with two-step resonant ionization employing newly-developed Ti:Sapphire lasers

Sakamoto, Tetsuo*; Morita, Masato*; Kanenari, Keita*; Tomita, Hideki*; Sonnenschein, V.*; Saito, Kosuke*; Ohashi, Masaya*; Kato, Kotaro*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Kawai, Toshihide*; et al.

Analytical Sciences, 34(11), p.1265 - 1270, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.18P249

A Study on fast digital discrimination of neutron and -ray for improvement neutron emission profile measurement

Uchida, Yuki*; Takada, Eiji*; Fujisaki, Akihiro*; Isobe, Mitsutaka*; Ogawa, Kunihiro*; Shinohara, Koji; Tomita, Hideki*; Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*

Review of Scientific Instruments, 85(11), p.11E118_1 - 11E118_4, 2014/11

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4891711

Fast neutron detection under intense -ray fields with novel nuclear emulsion technique

Ishihara, Kohei*; Takagi, Keisuke*; Minato, Haruna*; Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Tomita, Hideki*; Maeda, Shigetaka; Naka, Tatsuhiro*; Morishima, Kunihiro*; Nakano, Toshiyuki*; Nakamura, Mitsuhiro*; et al.

Radiation Measurements, 55, p.79 - 82, 2013/08

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.radmeas.2012.10.019

In order to measure the neutron under a condition of high intensity of -ray background, we made new nuclear emulsion based on non-sensitized OPERA emulsion which had small AgBr grain size (AgBr grain size of 60, 90 and 160 nm). The sensitivity of this new emulsion, which was a correlation between stopping power and grain density, was estimated experimentally by irradiating neutrons with several energies. We also simulated the response to -ray induced electrons and compared with some experimental results by using Co source. The results showed that there might be a threshold energy deposited in one AgBr grain under which it was impossible to develop. We estimated efficiency to the -ray and the neutron with this obtained response of the new emulsion.

Development of neutron measurement in intense field using new type of nuclear emulsion

Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Ishihara, Kohei*; Takagi, Keisuke*; Tomita, Hideki*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Naka, Tatsuhiro*; Morishima, Kunihiro*; Maeda, Shigetaka

Journal of ASTM International (Internet), 9(3), 5 Pages, 2012/03

https://doi.org/10.1520/JAI104007

In order to measure the neutron from a spent fuel assembly in fast breeder reactor precisely, we made new nuclear emulsion based on non-sensitized OPERA film with AgBr grain size of 60, 90 and 160 nm. The efficiency for Cf neutron of the new emulsion was calculated to be 0.710 which energy ranged from 0.3 to 2 MeV that agrees with preliminary estimated value from experimental results. The sensitivity of the new emulsion was also estimated experimentally by irradiating 565 KeV and 14 MeV neutrons and found that the emulsion with the AgBr grain size of 60 nm showed the lowest sensitivity among these three emulsions but still had enough sensitivity for proton. Also, there was a suggestion from the experimental data that there was a threshold LET of 15 KeV/m for our new emulsion below which no silver cluster was developed. Further development of the response of nuclear emulsion with a few tens of nano-meter AgBr size is next step of this study.

High sensitive and reliable FFDL technique for SFR using laser resonance ionization mass spectrometry

Ito, Chikara; Iwata, Yoshihiro; Harano, Hideki*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Aoyama, Takafumi

Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 102(1), p.416 - 417, 2010/06

no abstracts in English

Multi-scattering time-of-flight neutron spectrometer for deuterium to tritium fuel ratio measurement in fusion experimental reactors

Asai, Keisuke*; Yukawa, Kyohei*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Naoi, Norihiro*; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Yamauchi, Michinori*; Konno, Chikara

Fusion Engineering and Design, 83(10-12), p.1818 - 1821, 2008/12

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2008.08.002

The fuel ratio in a DT burning plasma can be derived from the intensity ratio of DD/DT neutrons, and detecting a trace of DD neutrons in the DT burning plasma is a key issue. A new type of neutron spectrometer is proposed to monitor the fuel ratio in the core of the ITER plasma. The system based on a conventional time-of-flight method consists of a water cell as a neutron scattering material and tens of scintillator pairs arranged around the first scintillator in a corn shape. We call it a multi-scattering time-of-flight neutron spectrometer (MS-TOF). A trial experiment was conducted for the prototype MS-TOF system with a DT neutron beam (20-mm diameter) at the Fusion Neutronics Source (FNS), Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The experimental results show that the DD and DT neutron peaks are clearly observed, and the experiment has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of the MS-TOF concept for detecting trace-DD neutrons within a DT neutron beam extracted from a DT burn plasma.

X-ray magnetic circular dichroism and photoemission studies of ferromagnetism in CaMnRuO thin films

Terai, Kota*; Yoshii, Kenji; Takeda, Yukiharu; Fujimori, Shinichi; Saito, Yuji; Owada, Kenji; Inami, Toshiya; Okane, Tetsuo; Arita, Masashi*; Shimada, Kenya*; et al.

Physical Review B, 77(11), p.115128_1 - 115128_6, 2008/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.77.115128

Novel concept of time-of-flight neutron spectrometer for measurement of the D/T burning ratio in the ITER

Asai, Keisuke*; Naoi, Norihiro*; Iguchi, Tetsuo*; Watanabe, Kenichi*; Kawarabayashi, Jun*; Nishitani, Takeo

Review of Scientific Instruments, 77(10), p.10E721_1 - 10E721_3, 2006/10

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2352740

A time-of-flight (TOF) neutron spectrometer is one of the candidates of the measurement of the D/T burning ratio in ITER. In the ITER high power experiments, the TOF system would suffer from high event rate or accidental counts due to high radiation intensities, which can be one of background sources for DD neutron measurement. We propose a new neutron spectrometer to apply to the measurement of the D/T burning ratio in the ITER high power operation region. This system is based on the conventional double crystal TOF method and consists of a water cell and several pairs of scintillators. A water cell is inserted before the first scintillator of the TOF system and acts as a radiator or neutron scattering material. Because DD neutrons have a larger cross section of elastic scattering with hydrogen than DT neutrons, the elastic scattering in the radiator enhances the relative ratio of DD/DT intensity by about 3 times before entering the TOF system. The enhancement of the relative intensity of DD neutrons makes the detection of DD neutrons easier. The feasibility of this method as a neutron spectrometer and the basic performances of this system have been verified through a preliminary experiment using a DT neutron beam (20 mm) at the Fusion Neutronics Source, Japan Atomic Energy Agency.